Bulldozers and synergy in the Middle East

05-Sep-2003: By GUY ROGERS

ISRAEL has called for regional partnerships to address desertification -- but Palestine says Israel’s bulldozers are causing the problem.

Addressing a plenary session at the 6th Conference of the Parties to the Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in the Cuban capital of Havana this week, Israeli delegate Dr Uriel Safriel said his country viewed the conference as a milestone.

Besides the endorsement of the powerful Global Environment Facility as a funding partner, it had emphasised the importance of “synergies”, an issue first highlighted by Israel in a UN-co-ordinated woprkship in that country in 1998, he said.

Israel has participated with Jordan and even the Palestinian Authority on initiatives to combat desertification in the past but, with the politics of the region for some time now at a low ebb, these have ground to a halt.

Referring to this situation, Dr Safriel said his country was the only one of the convention’s 190 member states barred in this way from forging partnerships and even from group discussions.

Looking to overcome the problem, he noted the financial support extended by Israel’s Albert Katz School for Desert Studies in Sede Boqer as well as courses offered by the Israeli department of international co-operation.

“Distinguished delegates I wish to invite experts from all affected countries to take this opportunity for technical exchange and capacity building.”

Speaking later in the same chamber, Palestinian Authority representative Abdullah Younes made no reference to this invitation and instead launched a broadside at “the occupying forces”.

Israel had destroyed fruit plantations, nurseries and hundreds of hectares of vegetable crops resulting in widespread land degradation and human suffering, he said.

“We suffer from the bulldozer, the weapon not included in the weapons of mass destruction.”

Palestine, “the land of celestial books and heavenly peace” is calling on the international community to hold Israel accountable for this action, he said.


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